Thursday, April 28, 2016

"Toto" tells the story of a Manila hotel worker who seeks
every way to get a visa to America.Sid
Lucero plays Antonio Estares, the Toto in the film, who in his jovial and friendly
self tries to flirt his way with hotel guests – all with U.S. passports – to
try to get one to sponsor him on his American Dream.

This comedic look at the hopes of many
outside U.S. to get to the land of many dreams exposes the harsh reality that
without money, such a dream often becomes a nightmare.The very hetero Toto even gets cruised by an
American tourist staying in the hotel - will he succumb and sleep with the
American just to get a chance at a visa?

The film tackles his dilemma (and that of the American) in
an unexpected way.Instead of depicting
the American David Yeltsin (played by Blake Boyd) as a sexual predator after Asian young men, the director of Toto,
John Paul Su, manages to resolve the dilemma in this feature drama (115
minutes) to the ultimate satisfaction of both parties, with Toto retaining his
dignity and David also gaining what he needed. I'm not revealing what happens in the end; I'm afraid you will have to catch the film somewhere.

But Toto (the film) did manage to get to America, screening last Sunday at the 2016 Newport Beach Film Festival at
tony Newport Beach in sunny Southern California. The festival ends today.

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

For a Subversity Show Online bilingual (Vietnamese/English) interview with Phong, click here. Thanks to Thuy-Van Nguyen for interpreting!

Garnering the Community Spotlight Award at the 2016
Vietnamese Film Festival held in Orange, California, “Finding Phong” (Tim Phong) is an exquisitely beautiful
and revealing 2015 film about a young Vietnamese man’s journey to become a
young woman.

Scene from "Finding Phong": Mother (in background) with Phong

Although the film lists two veteran indie filmmakers Tran
Phuong Thao and Swann Dubus as co-directors, credit nonetheless also belongs to
the subject of this documentary, Le Anh Phong.Phong manages capture with small video cameras her own journey (while
trapped in the body of a male), as she filmed herself talking to her mother who
is far away back in their rural home in Quang Ngai province in Central Vietnam.

Selfie scene from "Finding Phong"

Phong with Subversity Show host

Self-identifying as a girl in her childhood,
the star of the film also manages to capture what must be an ethnographer’s
dream footage, as sister, brother and friends talk explicitly about
heterosexual sex including ejaculation and oral and penetrative sex.In addition to her mother, in her 70s, who
wonders why she is fated to have such a son (she had been happy the boy was
born), the bearded father (in his eighties) is shown saying that it doesn’t
matter boy or girl as long as there is support for the Revolution!

The film has been expertly and carefully edited out of 250
hours of footage and ends right after Phong manages to complete the physical
transition at a Thai clinic.It was
totally unscripted, and could not have been, given the gems of humanity that
remain in the film after its length was trimmed.

Kudos to the producers Gerry Herman and Nicole Pham who have
partnered with Phong to see this amazing film reach the festival audience
worldwide.It won France’s Nanook GrandPrix at the 34th Festival International Jean Rouch last fall, and furthermore a
DVD of the film has been added to every French school library in an attempt at
helping overcome discrimination against the transgendered.

Phong at VFF

Most significantly, Phong tells me in our brief Subversity
Show Online interview, Phong’s mother testified before state legislators, and Phong’s
story of her gender transition no doubt was instrumental in the passage of Asia’s
first law permitting transgendered to register in their chosen gender, when
Vietnam’s legislature passed such legislation last November.The law comes into effect in 2017 after 282
legislators voted in favor of it, out of 366.Unlike Phong, who had to travel to Thailand for her operation, future
Vietnamese transsexuals will be more likely to find receptive clinics within
Vietnam.Phong, who had moved to Hanoi
to go to university and discovered she was not alone as a transgendered, now
works for the state Puppet Theater there, painting the figurines that are used
in Vietnamese cultural productions.–
Daniel C. Tsang.

Friday, April 15, 2016

Two features and one short depict queer cinema from Vietnam will be screening Sunday, 17 April 2016 at VAALA's Vietnamese Film Festival that has just opened at the AMC 30 (The Outlets) in Orange, California.

A prizewinning film on the journey of Le Anh Phong from male to female is Finding Phong, who herself will appear at the festival. The film has already made a strong impact in Vietnam, which earlier this year passed legislation facilitating the legal recognition of trans people there, after officials viewed the film. It is directed by Tran Phuong Thao and Swann Dubus.

Joining a free "Finding Phong and the Vietnamese LGBTQ Community"
discussion (open to the public) after the showing at 1 pm Sunday April
17, 2016 is producer Gerry Herman, the Hanoi-based independent film
figure who has for over a decade managing the Hanoi Cinematheque that he founded in Vietnam's capital. Another panelist is cp-producer Nicole Pham. The panel will also include members of VROC: Viet Rainbow of Orange County, California.

Another queer feature is Big Father, Small Father and other Stories, focusing on male lust among various characters set in modern-day Vietnam. It is directed by Phan Dang Di and was in competition at The Berlinale. The film stars
Do Thi Hai Yen (Quiet American, Pao's Story and Adrift), Le Cong Hoang as well as Truong The Vinh.

About Me

This is a blog that pierces convention and disrupts the status quo. We seek intelligent turbulence over boring stability and creative uncertainty over certitude. Chaos is good. Stay tuned for future missives!